Health and Welfare Canada

60 Hz. Anechoic Chamber

Health and Welfare Canada's Anechoic Chamber is dedicated to research that will help to protect Canadians from the harmful effects of noise. Too much noise, carried on for too long, erodes our sense of hearing. It affects our quality of life and our ability to earn a living. According to Dr. Stephen Bly, Head of the Radiation Hazards Acoustics Laboratory in Ottawa, "We will provide laboratory support for standardization, for research and for education directed at making quieter tools and machinery. This anechoic chamber will make us key players on the international scene."

The statistics for Health and Welfare Canada's acoustic facility are impressive: The floor area is 192 square meters and the clear working height is 10.4 meters and the space is completely echo-free down to 50 Hz. (This facility was tested to be anechoic to 50 Hz.). It is a room within a room; the inner chamber has walls 25 cm thick and its all-up weight of 950 tones is supported on a system of 56 coil springs that isolate it from external vibration and even earthquakes. The four thousand plus glass fiber Eckel EW wedges that line the inner walls of the chamber are each 1.5 meters long and it took ten truck loads of glass fiber board and 840 rolls of hardware cloth to make them.

Each anechoic chamber that Eckel has constructed during its sixty years of experience has been unique. Some have been designed to measure the sound fields of aircraft, trucks or heavy machinery; others are intended for the precise calibration of instruments, or the measurement of human hearing. Very few are larger than this Ottawa facility.

Eckel's clients are not required to be familiar with the details of the design. Engineers and scientists are concerned with results and their employers are concerned with wise use of available capital. Eckel will work with the client to establish realistic specifications in the regard to today's needs and explore future uses for the chamber. Eckel has the experience to be the prime contractor for the entire construction project. Whatever the scope of the project the combined corporate wisdom and acoustic experience is available to the client. The company's sixty year reputation is built on just two things: client satisfaction, and guaranteed performance.